Gluten-free vegan wholesome carrot cake with coconut frosting, pistachios and lime.
With International Women’s Day today and Mother’s Day this Sunday this is the week to celebrate the feminine, the soft, the light, the beauty of being you.
And this Cardamom Pistachio Carrot Cake is my little offering to celebrate all of you beautiful, loving, compassionate, nurturing beings of Love & Light.
Quite traditional, a bit more wholesome, with my favorite spice of course, I had to sneak in some cardamom :) then we have the gorgeous pistachios and lime zest, all the good things. And if these flavors are not to your taste you can easily replace them with cinnamon, walnuts and orange zest.
The sponge is lovely, moist and rises well. I’ve used my favorite simple coconut frosting that I’ve used many times before. This time it came out slightly more loose, it often depends on thickness of the coconut yogurt, but it always sets on the cake so you needn’t worry if this happens to you.
The coconut yogurt mixed with coconut cream gives it that slightly cheesy flavor which works really nicely on carrot cake. I don’t tend to add any sweetener to the frosting these days, I don’t think it really needs it, but you can add 2tsp of maple syrup if you like. Decorate this deliciousness with some chopped pistachios, lime zest & ever so important blooms.
Cardamom Pistachio Carrot Cake (gluten-free & vegan)
Gluten-free vegan wholesome carrot cake with coconut frosting, pistachios and lime.
Ingredients
Carrot cake:
- 1 1/4 cup carrots, grated (200 grams)
- 1/2 lime, zest
- 1 cup ground almonds (100 grams)
- 1/4 cup buckwheat flour (35 grams)
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour (70 grams)
- 1/4 cup arrowroot (30 grams)
- 1/3 cup desiccated coconut (30 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- pinch sea salt
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar (100 grams)
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed + 6 tablespoons water
- 1/3 cup olive oil (80 ml)
- 1/2 cup almond milk (120 ml)
- 2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/2 cup pistachios, chopped (80 grams)
Coconut frosting:
- 1x 1 1/2 cups (400 ml) can full-fat coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
- 1/2 cup coconut yogurt (125 grams)
Topping:
- chopped pistachios
- lime zest
Instructions
- Mix 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed with 6 tablespoons water and set aside to thicken.
- Peel and grate carrots, add lime zest and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C)
- Grease and line two 6" round cake baking tins.
- In a large bowl whisk together ground almonds, buckwheat flour, brown rice flour, arrowroot, desiccated coconut, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, salt and sugar and set aside.
- In a small bowl whisk together flax eggs, olive oil, almond milk, apple cider vinegar and maple syrup.
- Add the wet mix to the dry mix and mix until well combined.
- Stir in grated carrots with the lime zest. You should have muffin consistency. Add little more almond milk if needed. Finally fold in chopped pistachios.
- Spoon the mixture evenly into your prepared tins and level out the surface.
- Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven once ready and leave to cool down for 20 min before removing from the tins.
- To make the frosting scoop the solid part of the coconut milk into a bowl, try not to get any liquid in. Add coconut yogurt and whip until smooth. It will thicken as you continue to whip. If you like sweetener you can add 2 teaspoon of maple syrup. Place into a fridge until you're ready to frost the cake.
- Once the cakes are completely cool, you can frost the cake. Place the bottom layer onto a cake stand and using spatula spread generously with the coconut frosting. Top with the second layer and frost the top of the cake.
- Decorate your cake with chopped pistachios & lime zest.
- Store in fridge before serving.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving:Calories: 569Total Fat: 41gSaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 25gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 456mgCarbohydrates: 46gFiber: 7gSugar: 24gProtein: 12g
Dear Hana,
Can I use ground chia instead of ground flaxseed, for the “eggs”? I have so much at home, begging to be put to good use …
Thank you for your amazing work. I love seeing your cakes and your photography.
Have a wonderful International Women’s Day :)
Sílvia
Hi Silvia, yes, you can. I find that ground flaxseed somehow works better in cakes and I prefer to use it, but ground chia seeds should give a similar result. Thank you so much for your lovely comment, makes me so happy that you love my work :) Have a wonderful International Women’s Day! Love Hxx
Dear Hana, I love your recipes ???? could you please advise for a substitute for coconut frosting? We don’t get
Coconut yogurt here..
Hi Monisha, you could use only the coconut cream, just use cream from two cans instead of one and whip until smooth and fluffy. Otherwise you could also try my Vegan Macadamia Frosting, (substitute macadamias with cashews if you like). xx
Hi Hana.
Can the sponge be frozen prior to icing?
Hi Karen, it will be at it’s best baked fresh or day before icing it. However I do regularly freeze leftovers of my layer cakes and they keep well in freezer. So hopefully it should keep well, better to ice it chilled in case it gets more fragile.
This cake looks incredible and I’d love to make it for a baking competition at work – however, a colleague has an allergy to nuts and sesame seeds. What do you think would work in place of the pistachios?
Thank you so much Alicia! You can just leave the pistachios out, but if you like to add something else, some raisins would be nice in carrot cake. Hope you all love it! Good luck! xx
Hi, Just finished making this cake and it turned out beautifully! Thank you so much. I did not see in your instructions where to add in the carrots + lime zest, so I folded them in at the same time as the pistachios. I used about 1/4 cup of finely chopped pistachios with lime zest for the topping, but I want even more tang so next time I will add additional zest both in the cake and on top. I will also add raisins for additional flavor and texture, as you mention in one of the comments. The frosting was light and airy and I did use the maple syrup in it. I can’t wait to try more recipes from your site!
Hi Crystal, thank you so much for your lovely comment, I’m so happy you loved this recipe! Thanks so much for pointing this out, I have now added it to the recipe, I re-read them so many times, but didn’t spot this one!
I’m so excited to try your recipes!!! They look absolutely divine :) Is there another flour I can sub for the brown rice please, as I try to avoid grains where possible.
Also I tried to make your raspberry chocolate cupcakes last night and I subbed coconut flour instead of the buckwheat (as I love the coconut flavour) at a 1:1 ratio but made a huge mistake there as they ended up not rising! I am going to try them again and actually follow your recipe :) I must say that even still the flavours were delicious!!!
Hi Shaz, you could replace it with extra buckwheat flour, I like a combination of buckwheat and teff flours too, but they are still grains. I find using coconut flour too difficult in vegan recipes, you really do need eggs in there so I tend not too. I like the cake to be fluffy and light, coconut flour makes them too stodgy. Hope the recipe works well for you :)
Hello…
I’d love to make this cake but need to convert to a 20cm cake tin and I need 3 layers. It’s for a special birthday cake… Any advice please on measurements would be much appreciated
Hi Helen, I think if you double the recipe you should have 3 nice layers. I would recommend baking it in 3 different 20cm cake tins for best results. Hope it goes well :)
Hi Hana,
Would it be possible to substitute whole wheat pastry flour for the buckwheat and brown rice flour?
Hi Devon, yes, you can. Substitute the buckwheat flour, brown rice flour and arrowroot. You might need less almond milk also, see how it is. Hope you like it :)
Thank you Hana! I’ll update on how it turns out!
Looking through other recipes and realized I never shared how it turned out! The whole wheat pastry flour worked out perfect. Substituted exactly as Hana suggested and used the same amount of of almond milk the recipe called for. Turned out delicious, perfect density and moistness!
Hi Hana! This looks delicious. Would I be able to use whole wheat flour in place of buckwheat and arrowroot and plain rice flour in place of brown rice flour? Or should I use whole wheat flour to substitute all three? Thanks so much!
Hi Sneha, thank you. You can use wholewheat flour to substitute all three (buckwheat, brown rice and arrowroot). Just adjust the milk as needed, you might need less. Hope it goes well :)
Hi Hana, probably a stupid question but can I replace ground almonds with almond flour?
Hi Nicole, you can. I tend to always use ground almonds, they’re little moister but almond flour should be fine too. You might need to add little more almond milk. Hope you enjoy the recipe :)
Hello lovely! Wow what a beautiful recipe, I can not wait to try it :) Thank you so so much for sharing!!
Would you happen to know how high each layer is?
Many thanks xx
You’re so welcome Jess! Using the 6″ tins they will be about 1 1/2″ to 2″ high I believe. Gluten-free vegan cakes don’t grow as much. But my cakes are quite filling, so you don’t need a huge slice! Hope you enjoy the recipe :)
Hi Hana,
Is there something else I could use instead of arrowroot or tapioca flour/starch? Thanks.
Hi Shamani, just leave it out if you prefer and add little more flour. It binds the gluten-free flours better but it’s not necessary. Alternatively, introduce another flour to the mix.